Tour de France 2005

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It's that time of year again — time for Tour de France 2005! In preparation for the 92nd Tour, which begins on July 2nd and runs through July 24th, I've gathered a few tidbits for fellow cycling fans, including websites, blogs and Palm applications.

If you have any additional resources to share: websites, blogs or apps for mobile devices, please let me know, so I can keep this list updated.

Tour Websites

Le Tour de France Official Website

Le Tour 2005 Flash Map

Outdoor Life Network (OLN) US Cable TV Coverage

Outside Magazine's Tour 2005 Coverage

The Daily Peleton

VeloNews

Capure The Peleton (Photography)

New York Times Le Tour 2005 Coverage

International Herald Tribune Le Tour Coverage

Fox Sports Tour Coverage

Le Grande Boucle (Cool combo of text and other Tour infos)

Streaming Audio

Eurosport's Live Le Tour Audio Stream (IE Win Only Webpage)

Eurosport's Live Le Tour Audio Stream (Direct WinMedia Link) thanks Matt G!

Tour Bloggers

TDFBlog

Maillot Jaune

LOGos Tourblog

Le Tour Delicieux

Peleton Blog

Cycloblog

Wannabe Bike Girl

Velogal's Race Blog

Frank Steele's Tour Guide for Beginners

TDF For the Rest of Us

YellowJersey.net

VinoVelo

Velochimp

Digital Peloton

Martin Dugard

Alex Trautwig

Kevin Livingston

John Robson

Phil White

Tour Palm OS Tools

DeepWeb's LeTour2005 (English, with Datebook support & Wireless features)

Ullrich Riepert's LeTour2005 (French & German, elevation charts, jersey winner DB)

Bike Races TV Calendar

Books

Tour de France Quiz Book by John DT White (For trivia lovers!)

UPDATE 2005-07-07: Matt G has kindly left a direct link to the Eurosport's Live Le Tour Audio Stream (in Windows Media) in the comments, which I've added to the Streaming Audio section. I'm testing it now on OS X and it seems to be a replay of today's stage — it works! :-)

Jon in the comments left the OLN TV contact info phone number: (203) 406-2500 if you want to call and request OLN bring back web streaming.

UPDATE 2005-07-06: I've added a link above for Eurosport's streaming audio of the TDF in English, however it seems only to work properly in IE on Windows. If someone can sort out the direct URL for the stream, please leave a comment with the link!

UPDATE 2005-06-28: The DeepWeb folks and Jean-Paul Horn, chairman of the Dutch Palm User Group informed me that DeepWeb's LeTour2005 application is also available. I'd mentioned the app last year and really liked how well it worked for me. Both Ullrich Riepert and DeepWeb's Palm OS apps seem good, so be sure to check them both out.

As in years past I may post about things as I get more into the Tour. Generally I mention the wilder stages or interesting turn of events, though I'm certainly no Tour expert — simply a fan of the Tour.

I can't wait to hear Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen calling each stage live! I'm hoping OLN will provide audio streams the stages this year, though it seems we have OLN on our low-end cable package, so I might just fire up the TV in the next room and listen while I work... we'll see.

Just think, in a little more than a week it's Le Tour time again! Whoo hoo! :-)

Go Lance!

Technorati Tags: tour de france

Comments

[Jean-Paul Horn]

Hi Mike,

You might want to add (and use for that matter) this faboulous program: LeTour 2005 (alas, same name as the other app): http://www.deepweb.nl/deepweb.asp?taal=NL&page=palm. It features Date Book integrations, wireless updates and whatnot. This is their third or fourth year they provide this program as freeware. DeepWeb also offers other sports related PalmOS programs like F1 for Formule 1 enthousiasts.

I've taken your original posting here as a starter for a more regional featured version on our Palm User Group website. Thanks for the excellent summary.

Best,Jean-Paul Horn,chairman Dutch Palm User Grouphttp://www.palmclub.nl/forums/showthread.php?t=20713

[Oskar van Rijswijk]

Mike,

This year I've made a special page with my ProTour and Le Tour postings (l o g os) and added a small directory of terric related websites.

The URL:http://www.w3os.nl/logos/protour

[Mike Rohde]

Jean-Paul and Oskar, thanks for the infos guys! :-)

[Jean-Paul Horn]

Hi Mike,

Me again :) Seen the news on Sirius doing a 'Behind The Scenes' podcast on Lance Armstrong during the Tour?http://www.sirius.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Sirius/CachedPage&c=FlexContent&cid=1115038985555&flash=flash

[Ian Barton]

Mike,

Good news for those of us that live in England. After Cghannel 4 dropped thir coverage of the Tour a couple of years ago, ITV2 are covering it.

ITV2 is a digital non subscription channel, which you can receive via a FreeView box. The alternative is Eurosport, which is a subscription channel.

Ian.

[Kim]

Is there anywhere on the web that a person in the U.S. can listen to live coverage?

[Mike Rohde]

Kim, I don't know where to find streamed English coverage on the net. In years Pas OLN provided it, but I can't seem to locate the service this year. Might be they've pulled it for 2005.

If you locate anything please leave the URL here.

[Mike Rohde]

Kim, Note the update to this post -- Eurosport is offering an audiofeed according to their site and while I've not tried it (will tomorrow) it might do the trick. Hope so. :-)

Here is the link again, just in case:

http://www.eurosport.com/home/pages/v4/l0/s18/playermultimedia_lng0_rub9_spo18_ven20792.shtml

[Mike Rohde]

BTW, seems that Eurosport page only works with IE on Windows... if somneone can figure out the direct URL to the stream, I'd greatly appreciate it. :-)

[Matt G]

Looks like the Eurosport feed is Windows-only (uses a proprietary WindowsMediaPlayer plug-in that is Windows only, so even if you have WMP on the Mac, for example), it still won't work. Sorry... I'll keep digging.

[Matt G]

UPDATE: I found the URl to the media and it works in Windows Media Player for Windows and Macintosh (OS X). The URL is: http://wmedialive.coltfrance.com/tourfrance_com

This seems to be a live feed of EuroSport in general, so if you are listening to it when the Tour is not racing, you will hear other data (it seemed to be a boxing match as I post this). Enjoy!

[Jon]

I think everyone should contact OLN (OLN USAOutdoor Life Network Two Stamford Plaza 281 Tresser Boulevard Stamford, CT 06901 Phone: 203- 406-2500 Fax: 203-406-2534) and TELL THEM to put the Steaming audio back. I called and they said it was due to "Contractual obligations" but said it may change in the next few days. I think the more calls they get, the sooner it will be changed! I'm calling again now...

[Mike Rohde]

Thanks Matt & Jon!

[Janine]

Thanks for the Tour info gathering. I will give Eurosport a try today.I have tried to contact OLN by email several times and have yet to get a reply. Disappointed about the lack of live audio this year, and their reluctance to reply to a viewer's concerns.

[Devin]

I'm trying to find somewhere I can get simple cell phone wirless updates like in years past and kind find anything anywhere. Does anybody have a link for me?

[Mike Rohde]

Devin, all of the SMS services seem to originate from Europe when I do a Google search, so if you're in Europe that woudl work, They all seemed paid services too.

I was thinking you could setup a Google alert to email your phne via SMS, though it wouldn't be ideal. seems there's a business model in there somewhere to me.

[reggie]

Thanks SO MUCH for the direct link to the eurosport audio. I have been doing frustrated back-flips trying to figure out how to listen to this year's race on my Mac.

Thanks again.

Reggie

[Mike Rohde]

Reggie, glad I could locate some streaming info for fans of Le Tour! I've listened in and the coverage is good, though I still have a place in my heart for Phil & Paul on OLN as I listen to the coverage from them, playing on the TV in the next room. :-)

[Patrick]

I'm with Reggie. Thanks for posting the link to the Eurosport audio feed. I've spent days trying to figure out how to make it work on my mac.

Thanks!

Patrick

[Adam E]

Hello,

Thanks for all the info - especially the streaming audio!

I found this the other day and thought I'd share it - David Zabriskie's blog. Not too much happening at the moment, but maybe he'll add more as the Tour progresses.http://www.davezabriskie.com/pages/1/index.htm

-Adam

[Fiction_Scribe]

Thanks for the direct audio link!!!!